Page 41 of Touch in the Dark

“Your free tomorrow, can I tell them you’ll meet them to talk about it?”

“Yeah sure,” I sigh.

“It’s so hard being you,” she flits over to the door. “I’ll speak with Francis and then call with the time and place,” she says, meaning my agent, who will need to be involved if I go with this.

When she’s gone, I take a quick shower, then power up the laptop and do a search on Instinct Underwear. It’s a middle to high priced brand and all the models look suitably pouty in moody images. It’s nothing I haven’t seen a hundred times before. But it is interesting to know they’re taking a different perspective. Rockstars and sports stars, I wonder who else I might meet.

Janie texts me later that evening as I am getting fully engrossed in a Tate James novel Jenna recommended. It is just getting good too, so I begrudge stopping because these books are almost better than watching porn, no matter what Jenna says, but Janie is full on spamming me with message after message.

I toss the eReader down and swipe up my phone. I have a meeting tomorrow at nine with the director of the campaign, marketing assistant and designer for the brand. Francis, my agent is going to attend the meeting with me to work out the contract.

Janie points out there is no brief for what they’re looking for, they want to adapt their line around the model not the other way around. I have no idea what that means but I reply to her sixth message letting her know I got it and I’ll be there at nine. For a minute, I contemplate telling Jordan, because I know it will piss him off that he didn’t get asked but decide against it.

It’s not like we have been avoiding each other but we are doing our own thing. At least Jordan finally sent everyone a ‘save the date’ for Christmas Eve at Sandy’s loft. It’s only three weeks till Christmas. After that, we have our road trip planned, assuming Archer still wants to take it. I’ve planned out a pretty good route on the Kentucky Bourbon Trail. I’m actually looking forward to it. I’ve even got us a decent RV rental. It’s nothing like our tour bus but it has a bedroom, and a convertible sofa, a bathroom, decent size kitchen and living area. We’re all set to go on that a week after New Year.

Shit, I should have checked when this campaign is looking to get started. I text Janie to ask her and she replies straight away, letting me know she’s emailed me everything but once I meet with them and agree terms, it’ll pretty much start. It makes me feel a little bit like I was a last resort, or a backup.

Before I let that fester, I get another text from Janie telling me they actually didn’t have space for another shoot but when her friend mentioned me, they made it work. Whether that’s the truth or not, it relaxes me. Her final message tells me it will definitely be in the next week.

Works for me.

Now back to my book, and when my dick stirs as I get back into it, the stark realisation hits that it’s been months since I got laid.

The meeting is over in Brooklyn, which is cool because I can go check in on Doris while I’m there. Francis, my agent, checked Instinct out thoroughly beforehand, telling me when he picks me up for the meeting, he isn’t going on Janie’s recommendation the company and the deal is good.

After we meet and go through the contract and concept, we sign off on the deal and Instinct are over the moon to have me on board, telling me they’d wanted to approach us to be a part of the campaign but hadn’t been able to get past the first door. I eyed Francis at that, but he shrugs. My next thought is Bianca blocking them. She has a very narrow view of our image and tries to keep our appearances and sponsors as close to that image as possible. Oh yeah, she is going to hate this.

“So, what is the deal with getting people from sport and music involved?” I ask as Francis and the marketing guy from Instinct head away from us, talking about something I’ve got no interest in.

Arizona, the style director grabs us two bottles of water and sits back down at the table opposite me. He reminds me a little of David Bowie in his Ziggy Stardust phase. He’s super tall and thin and has really sharp, distinctive features. His clothes are so psychedelic, I need sunglasses to stare directly at his pants. But he’s funny and I already know I’m going to like working with him.

“Well, for one, it’s definitely gonna draw more people in. Seeing your idol in their underwear? Hello, yes please,” he laughs. “But even though you’re not the average guy on the street, you have a slightly more attainable body image than the models we usually use in our campaigns. Plus, we’re mixing it up a little, we want to know what you guys’ love, what is your most favourite thing to do in the world and we’re gonna put you in a scenario with that passion. Hopefully, you don’t just tell me you want to play your guitar because that would be boring.”

“What do you mean exactly?”

“Well, Hamish Morgan is a soccer player, but he loves flying. He has his pilot licence so we’re using that as inspiration for his shoot.”

“Flying a plane in his underwear?”

“I’m sure stranger things have happened,” he laughs. “Trust me, the sets aren’t going to be atypical, they’ll have flair and be very editorial. Then we have Tania Eckhardt.”

“The opera singer?”

“You know of her?”

“I saw her in a show recently,” I lean back in the chair. “Amazing voice.”

“And an incredible body underneath all those layers,” he nods. “She’s a ghost hunter.”

“A what?” I laugh.

“She believes in the supernatural and goes on haunted house tours all the time. That one is going to be epic.”

“Shit, I’m not sure I have what you’re looking for if that is what you’re expecting,” I rub my chin. “What about Bastian Halko?”

“He’s actually a pretty good artist. Street art, like graffiti, we have all the ideas for that when we shoot it.”

Now I really feel as if I’m gonna be the biggest bore of the bunch. I can already imagine the images they’re going to get of Bastian in his skivvies in front of an amazing piece of art. I wrack my brains for something I do other than play music, hang out with my bandmates, or use the gym. All three are such cliches. God, I’m so predictable, it’s not even funny.

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